1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of testing. In particular, it relates to a system and method that questions an individual and accepts a response from the individual, wherein the individual is tested through a series of questions and answers to determine what the individual does not know.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional methods of testing seek to define the parameters of what an individual knows. These methods typically use either a database of questions, or algorithms, to generate proper answers to known or generated problems. The problems are then presented to an individual being tested to determine if the individual knows what the proper response is.
In testing methods where the possible answers are presented in a multiple-choice format, a correct answer or a xe2x80x9cnone of the abovexe2x80x9d response will typically be provided to an individual being tested along with any number of incorrect responses. These incorrect responses are generally generated from a random process or through accessing incorrect responses for the question being presented.
In a typical conventional testing method scenario, an individual being tested is presented with a question to be answered and several potential answers. The individual must then respond to the question by selecting one of the answers provided.
Typically, the answers provided do not reflect the misapplication of a primitive, or fundamental concept. Because of this, no meaningful information may be ascertained as to what the individual being tested doesn""t understand. Thus, the typical conventional testing method, after receiving an incorrect response to a question, will not indicate what primitive was not understood, so there is no way to know if primitive concepts were known or if the error was based on a mechanical problem by the individual being tested.
The present invention provides methods and a system for processing a series of query-responses between an individual and a system. A goal of this process is not to determine what information the user knows and understands, but to define the areas where the user doesn""t understand concepts. The system may adjust questions during a test process to locate the lowest level primitive components that the individual being tested doesn""t understand.
In an embodiment of the system, an individual being tested may be tested to see if a problem is understood by the individual and if the individual can respond correctly to it through multi-choice answers. Also, error choices may, be generated by algorithms designed to create wrong answers that would be xe2x80x9ccorrect responsesxe2x80x9d if the user misapplies the primitive concepts.
Another embodiment of the invention is directed toward a method for processing questions and responses, comprising the steps of entering data regarding an individual into a system; creating a question based on the data; creating a plurality of answers related to the question; presenting the questions and the plurality of answers to the individual; and detecting a response from the individual. In this embodiment, some of the plurality of answers may be incorrect answers based on misapplication of a primitive, while one of the plurality of answers is a correct answer to the question. Also, the system may create and present further questions and pluralities of answers to the individual based on the response from the individual. In addition, a counter may be incremented if an incorrect answer is chosen by the individual, and an action may be taken if the counter exceeds a threshold and another action may be taken if the counter does not exceed the threshold. The system may also support branding and authorization.
In this embodiment, the method may further comprise the step of determining from the responses from the individual what the individual does not know, and advertising information responsive to what the individual does not know may be presented to the individual.
Yet another embodiment of the invention is directed toward a system for processing questions and responses comprising a test establishment engine; a question creation engine, wherein questions are created using information determined by the test establishment engine; an answer creation engine, wherein a plurality of answers are created in relation to the questions; a presentation engine, wherein the questions and the plurality of answers are presented to an individual; and a response detection engine, wherein responses from the individual to the questions are detected. Also, some of the plurality of answers may be incorrect answers based on misapplication of a primitive. The system may create and present further questions and pluralities of answers to the individual based on the response from the individual.
The system may include a counter which may be incremented if an incorrect answer is chosen by the individual. Further, an action may be taken if the counter exceeds a threshold and another action may be taken if the counter does not exceed the threshold. The system may further comprise a determination engine, wherein the system determines from the responses from the individual what the individual does not know and advertising information responsive to what the individual does not know may be presented to the individual. The system may also support branding and authorization.
In all preferred embodiments of the invention, embodiments of the invention may be implemented in software residing on a computer system, and the computer system may be networked.